By DEVYN LANSDEN, Senior Reporter
The spring semester is almost halfway over, and Northwestern officials have announced enrollment numbers.
The number of students enrolled this semester is 1,709, a drop of roughly 1% from the spring 2021 semester, officials said. The university has 80 fewer students than it did during the fall 2021 semester.
Calleb Mosburg, dean of student affairs and enrollment management, said the fall 2021 freshman class was smaller than the fall 2020 class.
“Going through the environment we are in right now, I think, was tough for a lot of schools on their freshman class,” Mosburg said. “Most all schools in the state, with the exception of a few, had reported down on their freshman class enrollment.”
Mosburg said Northwestern’s spring enrollment is close to even, and other schools have similar numbers.
The Alva campus has 1,007 students enrolled, according to university data.
The university’s enrollment has declined for several semesters, starting even before the pandemic. Enrollment dropped in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Not all enrollment figures were lower, however. The number of students in concurrent enrollment increased 18.8% compared to last year, and graduate enrollment increased 11.4%. Northwestern has 196 concurrent and 205 graduate students.
To help drive up enrollment, Northwestern will print new informational packets to send to high school students, Mosburg said. Northwestern officials are also placing emphasis on giving area high school juniors and seniors the opportunity to take concurrent college courses at Northwestern.
Tylar Thompson, an admissions counselor in the recruitment office, said she thinks enrollment has stayed consistent coming out of the pandemic.
Thompson said recruiting tactics always need to be changing and evolving.
“This is a whole different breed of student,” said Thompson, who added recruiters are “figuring out how to appeal to them in a way that everyone wins.”
As she visits high schools, Thompson said she plans to ask students who are going to different colleges why they chose those schools over Northwestern. She said she wants to know what it is that Northwestern needs to change.
“What we’re battling right now is trying to understand this new generation of student,” she said.